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#1
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potato blight
Hello,
I'm in the Midlands. Has anyone suffered from blight (tomato or potato) this year? A friend said he lost his tomatoes. he went away for a weekend and when he came back they had gone. Could that have been blight? I had problems with slugs last year so this year I planted kestrel and Romano potatoes. One week they were growing nicely; the next week there was nothing there! It was as if they had been stolen! I have dug the ground and there are some tubers. Most are fine but there have been a few that were mushy. I don't know much about blight. Does this sound like it may have been the cause? I've read a little via google and I understand it is carried in the wind. Would polytunnels reduce the risk of blight? I have also read that some people spray every couple of weeks. Do many people here do that? Finally, what varieties can you recommend that are blight and slug resistant? TIA |
#2
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potato blight
In article , Fred
writes Hello, I'm in the Midlands. Has anyone suffered from blight (tomato or potato) this year? A friend said he lost his tomatoes. he went away for a weekend and when he came back they had gone. Could that have been blight? Almost certainly, if the fruit started turning brown instead of ripening. This happened to my plants, which are growing outside, and I Googled to find the answer. Firstly, spraying with Bordeaux mixture (copper sulphate and lime) early on in the season may prevent it. Secondly, if you have the blight, remove all brown leaves and browning fruit (and burn them - don't compost them), and spray the plant each day for a week with a solution of Epsom salts. I followed this routine and, while some of the fruit is still turning brown, I have saved a lot of it. The plants are of about four different varieties, and the cherry and plum varieties seemed to fare worse than the Alicante and Moneymaker. I have been looking after my neighbours' greenhouse while they are on holiday, and their crop turned brown with blight almost overnight. The damp conditions made it worse. My wife has removed the brown bits from a lot of the unripe fruit and used it in a variety of ways, but green tomato chutney has not yet been necessary. Roy. -- Roy Bailey West Berkshire. |
#3
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potato blight
"Fred" wrote in message ... Hello, I'm in the Midlands. Has anyone suffered from blight (tomato or potato) this year? A friend said he lost his tomatoes. he went away for a weekend and when he came back they had gone. Could that have been blight? I had problems with slugs last year so this year I planted kestrel and Romano potatoes. One week they were growing nicely; the next week there was nothing there! It was as if they had been stolen! I have dug the ground and there are some tubers. Most are fine but there have been a few that were mushy. I don't know much about blight. Does this sound like it may have been the cause? I've read a little via google and I understand it is carried in the wind. Would polytunnels reduce the risk of blight? I have also read that some people spray every couple of weeks. Do many people here do that? Finally, what varieties can you recommend that are blight and slug resistant? TIA Last year blight destroyed my entire crop. This year I've grown Fantasico and Ferline, outside, in the same compost as last year, and they're blight-free so far. They're just starting to ripen. I grow them in outside in pots. KeithC |
#4
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potato blight
Roy Bailey wrote:
In article , Fred writes Hello, I'm in the Midlands. Has anyone suffered from blight (tomato or potato) this year? A friend said he lost his tomatoes. he went away for a weekend and when he came back they had gone. Could that have been blight? Almost certainly, if the fruit started turning brown instead of ripening. This happened to my plants, which are growing outside, and I Googled to find the answer. Firstly, spraying with Bordeaux mixture (copper sulphate and lime) early on in the season may prevent it. Secondly, if you have the blight, remove all brown leaves and browning fruit (and burn them - don't compost them), and spray the plant each day for a week with a solution of Epsom salts. I followed this routine and, while some of the fruit is still turning brown, I have saved a lot of it. The plants are of about four different varieties, and the cherry and plum varieties seemed to fare worse than the Alicante and Moneymaker. I have been looking after my neighbours' greenhouse while they are on holiday, and their crop turned brown with blight almost overnight. The damp conditions made it worse. My wife has removed the brown bits from a lot of the unripe fruit and used it in a variety of ways, but green tomato chutney has not yet been necessary. Roy. I live in North Staffordshire and have had blight here, almost certainly that is what you have had. When you store your spuds throw out any suspect, then periodically turn them out (I assume you will store them in sacks) and remove more that have bound to have rotted. You will know if any are going of just give the open sack a good sniff, yuck. Subscribe to bligh****ch.co.uk they will send you periodic email telling you if there is or likely to be blight in your area. To lated for this year but should help next season. -- Please reply to group,emails to designated address are never read. |
#5
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potato blight
"Keith Cunningham"wrote .. "Fred" wrote I'm in the Midlands. Has anyone suffered from blight (tomato or potato) this year? A friend said he lost his tomatoes. he went away for a weekend and when he came back they had gone. Could that have been blight? I had problems with slugs last year so this year I planted kestrel and Romano potatoes. One week they were growing nicely; the next week there was nothing there! It was as if they had been stolen! I have dug the ground and there are some tubers. Most are fine but there have been a few that were mushy. I don't know much about blight. Does this sound like it may have been the cause? I've read a little via google and I understand it is carried in the wind. Would polytunnels reduce the risk of blight? I have also read that some people spray every couple of weeks. Do many people here do that? Finally, what varieties can you recommend that are blight and slug resistant? Last year blight destroyed my entire crop. This year I've grown Fantasico and Ferline, outside, in the same compost as last year, and they're blight-free so far. They're just starting to ripen. I grow them in outside in pots. We too are growing Fantasio, Ferline and also Legend tomatoes outside on the allotment as usual this year. Blight has struck our area and as usual the Ferline and the Fantasio toms have shows slight signs of the disease but it doesn't spread from small black patches on the leaves (looks a bit like Black Spot on Roses) and the crop is superb with the remaining fruit ripening fast. The Legend toms are excellent, big, soft deep red flesh and meaty, but most of the plants are showing severe blight although the fruit are only partly infected, and the ones not infected seem to be able to ripen despite the damage to the plant. Anyway, we have had a very good crop, buckets full, and there are a lot more to come. The potatoes also got blight but were already going over due to the very dry weather this summer so weren't too badly infected, also Kestral, Romano and Victoria. We had a couple of Romano tubers with blight, more with slug damage strangely, and a few Victoria. As always we are strict about what we sack up, only the best, the undamaged, so should be OK but will have to sniff in the sacks weekly to ensure we don't lose the lot. We did try the Sarpo blight resistant ones a few years back but didn't think the flavour was any good, not worth the effort. We'd rather buy some spuds in Sainsbury's. -- Regards Bob Hobden just W. of London |
#6
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potato blight
Bob Hobden wrote: "Keith Cunningham"wrote .. "Fred" wrote Big snippy We did try the Sarpo blight resistant ones a few years back but didn't think the flavour was any good, not worth the effort. We'd rather buy some spuds in Sainsbury's. Ahh....I'd been thinking of trying them next year -- Pete C London UK |
#7
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potato blight
On Mon, 7 Sep 2009 13:48:16 +0100, Roy Bailey
wrote: Almost certainly, if the fruit started turning brown instead of ripening. I don't know the exact details as it was a friend of a friend to be precise. I have been looking after my neighbours' greenhouse while they are on holiday, and their crop turned brown with blight almost overnight. The damp conditions made it worse. I thought plants under glass escaped because the rain was kept off them? |
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